research-skill

research-skill is a command for Claude Code from vinnie357/claude-skills. It costs 11 tokens per session (754 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A research command that investigates a topic and creates a properly structured Agent Skill with instructions and supporting reference files.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to turn research on a technical topic into a documented Agent Skill that follows the Agent Skills Specification.
Why use it?
It removes the need to design the skill folder, documentation format, complexity level, and source tracking by hand.

Command for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: argument-hint in frontmatter. Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md.

Part of the claude-code plugin — 12 skills, 2 commands shipped together

Good fit Use it to turn research on a technical topic into a documented Agent Skill that follows the Agent Skills Specification.

Compare 6 commands from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/vinnie357/claude-skills/research-skill
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinnie357/claude-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install claude-code, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 12 skills, 2 commands.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for research-skill

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/vinnie357/claude-skills/research-skill/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/vinnie357/claude-skills/research-skill)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/vinnie357/claude-skills/research-skill"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/vinnie357/claude-skills/research-skill/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for research-skill

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/vinnie357/claude-skills/research-skill"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/vinnie357/claude-skills/research-skill.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 11 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 754 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00011 $0.00754
Opus 5 $0.00005 $0.00377
Sonnet 5 $0.00002 $0.00151
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00075

Measured 5d ago against content hash 724fa863afbd, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

research-skill scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 5d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/tools/claude-code/commands/research-skill.md · 91 lines

What it actually says

Research a topic and create a properly structured Agent Skill following the Agent Skills Specification.

Skill Creation:

  • Directory Structure: Creates skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md with proper frontmatter
  • Progressive Disclosure: Generates reference files in references/ for deep context
  • Source Documentation: Updates promptlog/sources.md with all research sources
  • Specification Compliance: Follows Agent Skills Specification v1.0

Features:

  • Automatic Complexity Assessment: Evaluates topic complexity (1-10 scale)
  • Thinking Mode Selection: Standard/Extended/Deep based on complexity
  • Manual Override: Use --complexity=<level> to force thinking depth
  • YAML Frontmatter: Auto-generates name, description, license, metadata
  • Reference Management: Creates separate files for detailed documentation
  • Source Tracking: Maintains traceability in promptlog/sources.md

Examples:

/research-skill elixir-genserver
# Creates: skills/elixir-genserver/SKILL.md
# Updates: promptlog/sources.md

/research-skill kubernetes-operators --complexity=high
# Creates: skills/kubernetes-operators/SKILL.md
#          skills/kubernetes-operators/references/
# Updates: promptlog/sources.md

/research-skill react-hooks --complexity=medium
# Creates: skills/react-hooks/SKILL.md with enhanced analysis

SKILL.md Structure:

---
name: skill-name
description: What the skill does and when to use it — this is the ONLY text
  Claude sees during discovery, so every activation trigger belongs here, not
  in a body section.
license: MIT
---

# Skill Name

## Core Concepts
[Essential knowledge]

## Best Practices
[Guidelines and patterns]

## Examples
[Concrete usage examples]

## References
[Links to reference files if needed]

Workflow:

  1. Research: Gather authoritative sources and best practices
  2. Structure: Create skill directory following spec
  3. Generate SKILL.md: Write frontmatter and core content
  4. Create References: Add detailed docs in references/ for progressive disclosure
  5. Document Sources: Update promptlog/sources.md with all sources used
  6. Validate: Ensure spec compliance and activation clarity

Task Instructions: Use Agent tool with subagent_type: "general-purpose" to:

  1. Research the topic thoroughly using web search and authoritative sources
  2. Create the skill directory: skills/<skill-name>/
  3. Generate SKILL.md with:
    • Proper YAML frontmatter (name, description, license)
    • Clear activation criteria in description
    • Core procedural knowledge in markdown body
    • Concrete examples and patterns
  4. Create skills/<skill-name>/references/ if detailed documentation is needed
  5. Update promptlog/sources.md with:
    • All URLs and documentation sources used
    • Purpose of each source
    • Key concepts extracted
    • Date accessed
  6. Follow the 7-step skill creation workflow from CLAUDE.md
  7. Use imperative/infinitive language (not second-person)
  8. Keep commonly-used context in SKILL.md, detailed references separate

The agent should produce a complete, spec-compliant skill ready for use.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 5d ago First seen · 91 lines · 11 tokens per session scan A 724fa863afbd

Subscribe to this mod's changes

research-skill is a command published in the GitHub repository vinnie357/claude-skills (25 stars, last pushed 3d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 11 tokens to every session and 754 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-09-03.